Pinned topicOld connections still appearing after upgrade

‏2013-03-14T19:12:54Z
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Good afternoon,

I have a user who is testing the CICS Explorer v5.1 upgrade process for us. At this point he is trying to run v5.1 and is still pulling in the old connection definitions (without SSL). I watched him delete his workspace - c:\Users\<uswinid>\.cicsexplorer but it is still pulling in the OLD connections when he starts up CICS Explorer. We are running with an updated Connections.pref file (with SSL), in the c:\Program Files\IBM\CICS_Explorer folder. Any ideas as to where the old connections would be coming from?

Re: Old connections still appearing after upgrade

Sorry this area is giving you issues. Although I'm not immediately able to diagnose the problem here I have a few ideas for areas you may wish to consider that may help.

1. To see where your connections are coming from.
If you open the Host Connections view (there is a shortcut to this view via the windows tool bar via Manage Connections). In this views toolbar (top right) you will see one icon with an arrow underneath it which toggles how your connection links are displayed. Click this until your Connections pane shows My connections as the top-most tree item. Now right click on this item and select the Open option. This now shows where the connection file is coming from which may or may not be the file you intended.

2. The new connections file
The next step I would take is to look at the new connections file you are describing and confirm that it does contain updates to the connection details that highlight SSL connections. This file is in XML form but it is quite easy to spot if it is an updated file because you will see a key called ssl_confirmed for every connection. An updated connection file is one that has been created by a user running 5.1 who has gone through all of the connections and confirmed if each connection is an SSL connection and has subsequently exported it.

3. Load or import?
When the user originally loaded the connections did they do a load or import. The import option means that the connections are linked to whereas load pulls them into the workspace and most importantly can be updated.

Finally: If your user is the first to use it.
The new connections file will not have been created yet in which case I would recommend importing the connections file in "import" mode so that the connections details can be updated. Once imported each connection should be attempted and pop-up dialogs will assist you in making the decision if the connection is secure or not. Once this has been completed for each connection export your connections to a new connections preference file. That file will represent a true updated connections pref file and is consumable by other users.

Re: Old connections still appearing after upgrade

Sorry this area is giving you issues. Although I'm not immediately able to diagnose the problem here I have a few ideas for areas you may wish to consider that may help.

1. To see where your connections are coming from.
If you open the Host Connections view (there is a shortcut to this view via the windows tool bar via Manage Connections). In this views toolbar (top right) you will see one icon with an arrow underneath it which toggles how your connection links are displayed. Click this until your Connections pane shows My connections as the top-most tree item. Now right click on this item and select the Open option. This now shows where the connection file is coming from which may or may not be the file you intended.

2. The new connections file
The next step I would take is to look at the new connections file you are describing and confirm that it does contain updates to the connection details that highlight SSL connections. This file is in XML form but it is quite easy to spot if it is an updated file because you will see a key called ssl_confirmed for every connection. An updated connection file is one that has been created by a user running 5.1 who has gone through all of the connections and confirmed if each connection is an SSL connection and has subsequently exported it.

3. Load or import?
When the user originally loaded the connections did they do a load or import. The import option means that the connections are linked to whereas load pulls them into the workspace and most importantly can be updated.

Finally: If your user is the first to use it.
The new connections file will not have been created yet in which case I would recommend importing the connections file in "import" mode so that the connections details can be updated. Once imported each connection should be attempted and pop-up dialogs will assist you in making the decision if the connection is secure or not. Once this has been completed for each connection export your connections to a new connections preference file. That file will represent a true updated connections pref file and is consumable by other users.

When you said "Now right click on this item and select the Open option. This now shows where the connection file is coming from which may or may not be the file you intended." all I show is "Refresh" if right clicking on the "My Connections" line. If I right click on one of the connection lines all I see is "Disconnect, Edit, Delete and Set Credentials".

Re: Old connections still appearing after upgrade

Sorry this area is giving you issues. Although I'm not immediately able to diagnose the problem here I have a few ideas for areas you may wish to consider that may help.

1. To see where your connections are coming from.
If you open the Host Connections view (there is a shortcut to this view via the windows tool bar via Manage Connections). In this views toolbar (top right) you will see one icon with an arrow underneath it which toggles how your connection links are displayed. Click this until your Connections pane shows My connections as the top-most tree item. Now right click on this item and select the Open option. This now shows where the connection file is coming from which may or may not be the file you intended.

2. The new connections file
The next step I would take is to look at the new connections file you are describing and confirm that it does contain updates to the connection details that highlight SSL connections. This file is in XML form but it is quite easy to spot if it is an updated file because you will see a key called ssl_confirmed for every connection. An updated connection file is one that has been created by a user running 5.1 who has gone through all of the connections and confirmed if each connection is an SSL connection and has subsequently exported it.

3. Load or import?
When the user originally loaded the connections did they do a load or import. The import option means that the connections are linked to whereas load pulls them into the workspace and most importantly can be updated.

Finally: If your user is the first to use it.
The new connections file will not have been created yet in which case I would recommend importing the connections file in "import" mode so that the connections details can be updated. Once imported each connection should be attempted and pop-up dialogs will assist you in making the decision if the connection is secure or not. Once this has been completed for each connection export your connections to a new connections preference file. That file will represent a true updated connections pref file and is consumable by other users.

3. Load or import?
When the user originally loaded the connections did they do a load or import. The "LOAD" option means that the connections are linked to whereas "IMPORT" pulls them into the workspace and most importantly can be updated.

Re: Old connections still appearing after upgrade

Sorry this area is giving you issues. Although I'm not immediately able to diagnose the problem here I have a few ideas for areas you may wish to consider that may help.

1. To see where your connections are coming from.
If you open the Host Connections view (there is a shortcut to this view via the windows tool bar via Manage Connections). In this views toolbar (top right) you will see one icon with an arrow underneath it which toggles how your connection links are displayed. Click this until your Connections pane shows My connections as the top-most tree item. Now right click on this item and select the Open option. This now shows where the connection file is coming from which may or may not be the file you intended.

2. The new connections file
The next step I would take is to look at the new connections file you are describing and confirm that it does contain updates to the connection details that highlight SSL connections. This file is in XML form but it is quite easy to spot if it is an updated file because you will see a key called ssl_confirmed for every connection. An updated connection file is one that has been created by a user running 5.1 who has gone through all of the connections and confirmed if each connection is an SSL connection and has subsequently exported it.

3. Load or import?
When the user originally loaded the connections did they do a load or import. The import option means that the connections are linked to whereas load pulls them into the workspace and most importantly can be updated.

Finally: If your user is the first to use it.
The new connections file will not have been created yet in which case I would recommend importing the connections file in "import" mode so that the connections details can be updated. Once imported each connection should be attempted and pop-up dialogs will assist you in making the decision if the connection is secure or not. Once this has been completed for each connection export your connections to a new connections preference file. That file will represent a true updated connections pref file and is consumable by other users.

1. I was able to see this information on my machine and will get with my user to see what pops up for him.
2. Yes, the connections file is showing ssl_confirmed="true" for the Connections.pref file in the CICS_Explorer folder. These were created by me from my v5.1 session and SSL was turned on before the connections were Exported.
3. How exactly does one IMPORT vs. LOAD? I think that we are doing the IMPORT since the connections cannot be edited. I see the LOAD icon in the Manage Connections view and have used that before. We are trying to roll out the software and connections to our users as a package so were trying to include them together from the install, instead of having them LOAD the connections separately after the install of the software is complete.